Congolese Plantation Workers Art League
The Congolese Plantation Workers Art League (French: Cercle d’Art des Travailleurs de Plantation Congolaise, or CATPC) makes chocolate sculptures. The group consists of workers recruited by Dutch artist Renzo Martens from a plantation owned by the consumer goods corporation Unilever. Martens was heretofore known for his provocations, including a documentary a decade earlier that suggested that the Congolese people capitalize their poverty as a natural resource. The CATPC artists—Djonga Bismar, Mathieu Kilapi Kasiama, Cedrick Tamasala, Mbuku Kimpala, Mananga Kibuila, Jérémie Mabiala, Emery Mohamba, and Thomas Leba—work with an ecologist and artists based in Kinshasa. Martens sells their works in his Berlin and Amsterdam galleries. As of late 2016, the worker–artists had received US$35,000, or what Martens estimated as 15 additional annual salaries split among the group.[1]
Martens has also sought to return the proceeds of the plantation workers' labor by asking major artists to donate artworks to a new plantation art museum as recompense for having received Unilever patronage through the Tate Modern. The artist Carsten Höller has donated.[1] The white cube gallery opened in April 2017.[2]
Their sculptures include portraits and allegories. Their material, the cocoa bean, carries political connotations, including concerns for its controversial labor conditions and effect on the environment.[1]
The group and Martens will represent the Netherlands at the Dutch pavilion in the 2024 Venice Biennale.[3]
References
- ^ a b c Boucher, Brian (November 1, 2016). "Congolese Sculptors Redirect Capital to the Plantation". Artnet News. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
- ^ Hegert, Natalie (May 11, 2017). "How an OMA-Designed Art Museum Just Opened in a Remote Town in the DRC". Artsy. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
- ^ Greenberger, Alex (March 28, 2023). "A Guide to the 2024 Venice Biennale National Pavilions". ARTnews.com. Retrieved April 23, 2023.
Further reading
- Bishop, Claire (May 2017). "Cercle d'Art des Travailleurs de Plantation Congolaise". Artforum. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
- "Congolese Plantation Workers Art League". The New Yorker. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
- Cotter, Holland (March 13, 2017). "African Art in a Game of Catch-Up". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
- Jeffries, Stuart (December 16, 2014). "Renzo Martens – the artist who wants to gentrify the jungle". The Guardian. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
- Kennedy, Randy (February 2, 2017). "Chocolate Sculpture, With a Bitter Taste of Colonialism". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
- Lesser, Casey (February 1, 2017). "Congolese Plantation Workers Are Making a Living Selling Chocolate Sculptures to the Art World". Artsy. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
- Pogrebin, Robin (January 25, 2017). "Cacao Statues at the SculptureCenter". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
- Scher, Robin (March 3, 2017). "Chocolate Sculptures by the Congolese Plantation Workers Art League Enrich the Armory Show". ARTnews. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
- Smith, Roberta; Cotter, Holland; Farago, Jason (December 6, 2017). "The Best Art of 2017". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
